In the wake of the capture of Ft. Donelson, Tenn., a few days ago,
events were moving with great speed on the Western front. In fact,
matters were moving faster than the bureaucracy could keep up with,
and this led to some squabbling among the commanders. Gen. C. F.
Smith led his men into Clarksville, Tenn., today to occupy the town
and preserve order. Unfortunately Gen. Smith was under the command
of Gen. U.S. “Unconditional Surrender” Grant, and Clarksville was in
territory which was the responsibility of Gen. Don Carlos Buell.
This was, to use technical military terminology, a no-no. Clerks
scrambled to get matters straightened out, hopefully before either
general got to Nashville, the next target.

Thursday, Feb. 19 1863 DUPONT DEPLORES DREADFUL DEVELOPMENTS

Admiral Samuel DuPont was in charge of the South Atlantic Blockading
Squadron, based out of Port Royal, S.C. He was not a happy man today
though, as evidenced by a letter he wrote to his superiors. After
pointing out that nobody could get through the blockade by day
anymore, he got a bit heated that he was being criticized because a
few ships were still sneaking through at night. “A cordon of
ships--some twenty-one miles moored together stem to stern--would do
it easy,” he said somewhat tactlessly. He also had a low opinion of
ship’s machinery coming out of American factories: “...the wear and
tear and ceaseless breaking of American machinery compared with
English or even French now, keep a portion of [the forty-some ships
he had] always in here repairing. If I had not induced the
Department to establish a floating machine shop, which I had seen
the French have in China, the blockade would have been a total
failure,” he said modestly.

Friday Feb. 19 1864MASSACHUSETTS MIGRATORY MISSIVE MAILED

President Abraham Lincoln, for all his determination to secure the
abolition of slavery, was in no way a believer in equal rights for
blacks--in fact by modern standards he would be considered a
thoroughgoing racist. In common with most whites of his time, he
took for granted that the differences between blacks and whites were
so great that it was inconceivable that they could ever live
together in equality and peace. Today he wrote to the Governor of
Massachusetts asking “if it is really true that Massachusetts wishes
to afford a permanent home within her borders, for all, or even a
large number of colored persons who will come to her.” Lincoln had
proposed plan after plan for recolonization of blacks, to Africa,
Cuba or Central America. Where he had gotten the notion that
Massachusetts wished to turn itself into a black homeland is
unknown.

Sunday Feb. 19 1865CAROLINA CONQUEST QUIETLY CHEERED

As Gen. William T. Sherman’s men completed the demolition of
Columbia's public buildings, mills, railroads, factories, and
anything else that might be of use to the Confederate war effort,
they prepared to depart for the next city to the north,
Fayetteville. On the occasion a Federal major, George Nichols, wrote
in his diary words which did not bode well for the spirit of
reconciliation in America: “Columbia will have bitter cause to
remember the visit of Sherman’s army...it is not alone in the
property that has been destroyed... It is in the crushing downfall
of their inordinate vanity, their arrogant pride, that the rebels
will feel the effects of the visit of our army. Their fancied,
unapproachable, invincible security has been ruthlessly overthrown.
...they have lost their best blood here.”